L C R Panning & Mixing in Mono - Warren Huart: Produce Like A Pro

Hi Friend, while most Mixers don’t mix in Mono, they do very often check in Mono. Understanding the basic concepts of LCR is a great tool to add to your mixing arsenal! Please check out the video and please give me your opinion and share what you do! Do you sue LCR or Mix in Mono?

David there’s an interesting website called DAWBench where they ran some comprehensive tests comparing DAWs and OS performances for anyone interested.

Also, the fact that a DAW CAN run a successful null test by inverting the phase of two identical signals and they cancel proves that the sum algorithm is perfect.

The panned guitars tend to become weaker when they are collapsed in mono. How do you fix that? Thanks again.

amazing, really cool

Excellent discussion, Warren. Thank you.

You truly are an inspiration to many of us who follow your tutorials and footsteps, thank you so much for sharing your years of experience in audio engineering with us for free🙏

Question: am I right in thinking - best not to hard pan stereo electric guitars?? I tend to use samples that are all in stereo. Thanks

Hi thanks for the video but I have a question! What happens to sounds panned hard left and right when converted to or played in a mono system... do they completely disappear or just becomes half as loud?
Cheers

I have never understood how to reproduce this phase issue. When I record guitar through DI and amp at the same time, both tracks are in sync (no delay) and the phase/polarity is not flipped. Guitar -> radial 48 pro. Thru -> amp, Low-Z out -> Uad Apollo input 1 (mic), mic from amp cabinet -> Uad Apollo input 2. Phase/polarity not inverted on Apollo. So how do you create this bass DI and mic’ed bass problem in this video?
The only time I have to flip and use phase button, is while reamping, sending the DI Signal to radial reamp to amp and mic amp, which makes sense to me

Great video, can anyone recommend an amp that will get me close to the guitar sounds in this video? Upto about £700? Thanks

I wanted to ask about the drums aux channel used for crush and reverb, maybe a room reverb. How hard would you set the stereo width? having in mind that you would use a reverb plugin like fab filter pro reverb. Could it create mudiness and lack of clarity in the other elements if they are to wide?

wich panning law is better to use in LCR mixing ? stereo channel in mono can loose level...

Such a great explantation of LCR mixing the use of high pass eq in guitars. And checking in mono!

I like to mix under water, if it sounds good there its great up top, but my headphones do get very soggy.

Your videos are phenomenal! You explain these concepts so well! Thank you so much, you have helped me greatly in such a short period of time. Keep up the great work!

All of this is great. But i can't seem to find the answer to one of my questions. I have a mix with hard panned guitars. They sound great, minimal amount of polarity issues. But when you take something that's hard panned like guitars, and then flip to mono, the output volume drops a lot. I think it's referred to as the Pan Law. It makes sense. But when mixers hard pan guitars like that, are they just accepting that the guitars will be too quiet in mono? Or do they do some kind of trick so even on mono systems the mix sounds the same? I can't think of too many situations these days where someone would be hearing my mix in mono, but I'd still like it to translate well

Thanks Warren, another super useful explainer video!

But on Lcr panning, we dont lose all the sound in mono? 🙂

To me the idea of LCR panning is like limiting your fader levels to -0db, -15db, and -30db....

Are cymbals also LCR in and LCR mic like this? I though I heard some cymbals inbetween stuff. How about toms?

Merciiiiii !!!!

Hi. In what part of the vid are you showing how to mix in mono? I missed it. Thank you.

This is not what I expected. LCR is a sound system configuration, where you have separate Left, Center, and Right speaker channels, and a mixer that enables you to pan seamlessly across left, center and right speakers. Such systems are often used in conjunction with surround speakers in medium and large cinema and auditorium systems. Aside from soundtracks, LCR has no correlation with genre or hard panning to either left or right. Mono compatibility is of course important, as extension speakers are often driven with a single combined LCR signal.

Would LCR mixing work for house music? and if anybody would be kind enough, some examples?

This man could really do Elvis impersonator gigs on the weekend if he wanted! Thanks for the helpful tutorials

Great stuff!

I think the LCR mixing techniques was a joke the A-list mixers played on everyone to confuse people and make people think that it was actually something they did so that they would create horrible mixes and the A-list guys would get more work haha🤣🤣

Congratulations on the excellent channel! A question:
Do you mix with ILOUD monitors or is it just for videos?

Great tips. Ya, checking your mixes in mono is key. I discovered for myself that phase inverting one side (e.g., right) of a mono low-end instrument such as a bass guitar in the stereo field can create some nice effects: the bass appears more in the center and has a deeper low end; however, if the mix is now checked in mono, there will be no bass--complete phase cancellation. It was a blunt lesson for me that something can sound good out of phase in the stereo field but become dull/quieter or even non-existent when it is collapsed into mono.

Sweet sideburns dude. Love the channel!

Really enjoyed this video! Thank you for taking the time to make it (and all the other videos you do). You rock!

Just a thought: the great band NomeansNo as a trio, have their bass track (quite an overdriven sound) panned slightly left and gat to the right to balance the track. With trios this seems to work, so you don't have one guitar panned left or right, unbalancing the mix, with bass down the middle...I know it's generally verboten to pan the bass, but for some set-ups, it seems to work better.

in what song any wallance does that? im courios

i think panning guitars hard right and left is too much. i go halfway left and right

Hey Warren, where you mentioned having multiple guitar tracks, won't the multitracking in a way add more mids to the sound? Sometimes its sounds like that to me, but the mids sounds rather open as well. Also wonder sometimes if multitracking compromises the clarity

Really glad to see those iLoud micro monitors, makes me feel better about my choice to use them - as a hobbyist, having 8" powered monitors wasn't an appealing thought (especially if desk space is at a premium), but I've been very happy with the iLouds.

Warren, you have made me an infinitetly better musician!

Hey I just wanna say that when I opened your video, I thought: "How the hell does that guy expect to be taken seriously with those stupid iLoud speakers," but then you talked and I subscribed in three minutes. Well done;-) Thanks for the super pedagogical approach, very clear and thought provoking.

You're such a great teacher! Bravo :)

god

your are my food sir

Thanks. Super informative as always.

Warren, I do the reverb panning trick all the time thanks to you. It works incredibly well! Sometimes though I find that I don't pan the R reverb hard L, but maybe 80% and vice versa. Seems to give a little thickness.. thanks!

Well, it took a while (more than a year), but this video has changed my life. I feel like I have a fundamental tool for the mud in my mixes. Thanks!

I'm confused now. Do I need to use a DI or just plug it in directly to the soundcard? Does it mak a difference?

Ty

Please explain some of the Beatles songs.They didn't always do it that way,A lot of their songs had the music on one side and the vocals on the other and that seemed to work.

subtractive EQ .. it is the way to think .. give each instrument its own space.

Does anyone know why when you take a stereo mix and knock it down to mono the right channel gets weak ( even listening to pro mixes and left right channel tests)I experience this on my iPhone loudspeakers and when I use a plug-in to switch the mix to mono